Monkeypox is not smallpox.

Monkeypox is not a novel virus.

Monkeypox is probably not the next pandemic, but it's really helpful for us to be aware of what's going on. Struggling to wade through all the information? We've a little history with poxviruses so here's a 🧵... 1/15 Monkeypox is a viral zoonotic disease caused by monkeypox virus (an orthopox virus related to smallpox and cowpox but not in any way related to chickenpox... more on that later...). The virus was first identified in monkeys in 1958 but is probably usually found in rodents... 2/15

Thanks so much to everyone who shared this 🧵 yesterday! We wanted to follow up with a few quick thoughts, inspired by Edward Jenner's approach, about how you might be able to have your own vaccination conversations with friends and family... 1/7 👇

https://twitter.com/DrJennersHouse/status/1478699226003558402

1⃣ Try and have a conversation, come from a place of wanting to understand more about your family member/friend/colleague/acquaintance's concerns. Arguments can be counterproductive as they often just serve to entrench views.

... 2/7 👇

We're often asked how Edward Jenner might approach conversations with people who are refusing or delaying vaccines and, actually, we've got a pretty good idea. You see, the vaccine pioneer was having these conversations all the way back in the early 1800s. Here's a 🧵... 1/6 👇 ... Vaccine hesitancy and anti-vaccination sentiment are as old as vaccination itself but then, as now, it was important to draw a clear distinction between the two. Edward Jenner was well aware that those he referred to as "the Anti-Vacks" were a loud minority... 2/6 👇

But what did we do before vaccination? For perhaps hundreds of years before Jenner it was understood that if you contracted smallpox and survived it, you were unlikely to catch it again. So around the world practices of deliberate, controlled infection were carried out... 1/11 ... The idea was that contracting smallpox in this controlled way was better than taking your chances catching it naturally. This was carried out in parts of Africa, India, China, and Turkey and practices varied according to local custom... 2/11

🖼️@ExploreWellcome CC-BY

In 1774 Benjamin Jesty, a farmer from Dorset, made a bold decision to protect his family from a smallpox outbreak. He took material from a cowpox lesion on a cow's udder and scratched it onto the arms of his wife and two sons... 1/6

🖼️ @ExploreWellcome ... Jesty had previously contracted the disease himself and, like many others, believed that prior infection with cowpox would lead to immunity from smallpox.

But wait, this was 22 years before Edward Jenner's experiment! So was Benjamin Jesty the pioneer of vaccination? ... 2/6

Time for a little break from the vaccination posts... Today is 14 April: St Tiburtius’ Day and traditionally the first day that cuckoos are heard in Britain. Here's a THREAD about cuckoos... 👇 1/4

https://twitter.com/DrJennersHouse/status/1250780765543161857

... Cuckoos winter in Africa and migrate to Europe and Asia in the summer, hence their call is considered one of the signs that heralds the arrival of spring or summer. Cuckoos are brood parasites, they lay their eggs in the nests of other birds, including reed warblers... 2/4

Just one more that we’ve spotted overnight...
MYTH: “Jenner was a chancer who got lucky”
FACT: This takes away from the rigorous scientific approach that Jenner went through. He had a hypothesis, he tested it, he kept records of how the cowpox infection progressed... 1/4

https://twitter.com/DrJennersHouse/status/1382025130566684672

... he repeated his experiment on multiple subjects, and then he committed to sharing his findings and helping others to vaccinate. Serendipity does have a role to play in science, and there are elements of it in Jenner’s work, but that doesn’t detract from what he did... 2/4

Hello, it seems to be time for another round of...

📢THE DR JENNER'S HOUSE MYTH BUSTING THREAD

There's a lot of misinformation out there at the moment and, amongst it all, we're still seeing very old myths about Edward Jenner and smallpox being shared. Here's a THREAD 👇 1/20 MYTH: "People have been vaccinating for 1000s of years and Jenner just took credit"
FACT: For perhaps 100s of years before Jenner, it was understood that if you contracted smallpox once and survived you were unlikely to catch it again and around the world... 2/20

Edward Jenner considered himself "vaccine clerk to the world". He hoped that vaccination would be provided universally, believing it the only way to rid the world of smallpox, and shared his knowledge freely with people around the world to support uptake of the practice... 1/4 In 1957, 161 years after Jenner's first vaccination, Soviet representatives told the World Health Assembly that they believed their huge investment in vaccination and containing outbreaks of smallpox was in vain whilst the disease remained endemic elsewhere in the world... 2/4

Welcome to...🎄The Dr Jenner's House Vaccine Preventable Disease Advent Calendar🎄

Over the next 24 days we'll be telling you about 24 different infectious diseases, all of which can be prevented by vaccination #VaccineAdventCalendar Day 1: human papillomavirus vaccines (HPV). There are over 100 types of human papillomaviruses; at least 14 are known to cause cancer. HPV vaccines are highly effective against the two HPV types (16 and 18) responsible for 70% of cervical cancers globally #VaccineAdventCalendar

On this day in 1977, Somali healthworker Ali Maow Maalin developed a rash: he had contracted smallpox. He entered isolation, his contacts were traced and vaccinated. Despite working with smallpox patients, Maalin had not been vaccinated... THREAD 👇 1/4 Maalin made a full recovery and was discharged in November 1977. On 17 April 1978 @WHO's Nairobi office sent a telegram which stated:

"Search complete. No cases discovered. Ali Maow Maalin is the world's last known smallpox case."

👇 2/4

Seems like it might be time for Version 3.0 of

🚨 THE DR JENNER'S HOUSE MYTH BUSTING THREAD 🚨

There's a lot of misinformation out there at the moment and, amongst it all, we are seeing a lot of old myths about Edward Jenner and smallpox being shared. Here's a THREAD 👇 1/17 MYTH: "People have been vaccinating for 1000s of years"
FACT: Inoculation (or variolation) involved deliberate infection with smallpox virus to provide immunity against further smallpox. This has a long history, pre-dating vaccination. But inoculation is NOT vaccination... 2/17

Here it is... Version 2.0 of
🚨 THE DR JENNER'S HOUSE MYTH BUSTING THREAD 🚨
We've been overwhelmed by your support and generosity in the past couple of days, but we’ve also seen a some old myths being shared. Get ready, it's a long old thread coming up! 👇 1/19 MYTH: "People have been vaccinating for 1000s of years"
FACT: Inoculation and vaccination are now used to describe the same thing, but historically inoculation referred to deliberate infection with smallpox virus with the intention of provoking immunity against smallpox... 2/19

Here it is...
🚨 THE DR JENNER'S HOUSE MYTH BUSTING THREAD 🚨
We've fielded loads of questions over the past couple of days about Jenner and smallpox and we just wanted to set the record straight on a few things. Get ready, it's a long old thread coming up! 👇 1/17 MYTH: "People have been vaccinating for 1000s of years"
FACT: Inoculation and vaccination are now used to describe the same thing, but historically inoculation referred to deliberate infection with smallpox virus with the intention of provoking immunity against smallpox... 2/17